Don't Rush the Process

12 Laws of Transformation • 40 Days to Personal Revolution

We live in a world filled of immediate gratification with Amazon Prime, picture perfect poses on Instagram and Door Dash to deliver your food without having to talk to another human within the hour.

This is a world I love to live in.

I love that we live with information at the tips of our fingertips. At any given moment I can choose to book a vacation in Bali, learn Spanish on a free app and YouTube how to bend like gumby. We live in a time where our opportunities are endless and easier to access than ever.

So why don’t we?

Why don’t we all walk around able to speak six different languages, hold three different degrees from an online university and have a healthy diet at our ideal fitness level? We have the access to all the knowledge we would could ever need via google, right?

Maybe not.

As a typical overachiever that started practicing yoga to get #fitAF I was immediately frustrated that I couldn’t do half of poses that I saw the other students in the room do with ease. The only reason I went back was to make the most of my intro special.

I would go home and try to google how to get better, faster. I dove head first into anatomy research to speed the process along. I was excited to take Instagram pictures of my stupid human tricks. That didn’t help me get any better, though.

The only thing that helped was practice.

Photo: @mollytookaphoto Yogi: @AlexandraAnnYoga

And ultimately, that’s how we end up learning the language, going physically deeper in the pose, earning our degrees. It takes practice and dedication. You have to SHOW UP.

Our daily practice is something that we don’t post on Instagram, it’s not something we can buy on Amazon Prime or have delivered to our home. We have access to the tools, but we have to use them over and over to see the results of what it is we are building. There is no instant gratification.

So I practiced extra, in hopes I could at least speed the process up. I pushed myself hard and deep in every class, every pose.

So much I ended up injuring myself.

I was forced to slow down and to pull back. To relax into in the process so I could heal the injuries. In that process, I found Yin Yoga, which not only helped me slow down but to appreciate natural progress over forced. It supported me when I came back to a more powerful Baptiste practice at DDY so I could appreciate the community here just as much as the pretzel shapes we were practicing.

If I hadn’t been injured, I don’t think I would still be doing yoga today. I think in some other way, I would have burned out from trying to achieve a shape because I was missing the simple joys of practicing yoga in a studio. Baron says “Injury is your greatest teacher.”

Immediate gratification is lovely, especially when you don’t want to wait for the rerun of your favorite tv series to come back on. But you also miss the simple joy of creating space once a week to sit down to your favorite show and share the highlight reel with your friends.

Making shapes is one part of our yoga process, but the simple joys are what keep us coming back. The community, the connection, and the shared laughs before and after class.

Take your time on this process. If you move too fast, you’ll miss all the fun.